"But if they voted for Trump because he promised to bring down groceries and housing costs, how come he now wants to make them worse?"
So Canadian PM Trudeau riffed at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, doing his best to poke at the irony of Trump promising inflation relief to millions of voters then "talking about adding 25% to all kinds of products."
But these voters evidently never grasped that Trump lies like he breathes and he was never about helping the struggling workers but compounding his own ego and power, especially going after the alleged "deep state". But now we've learned things will be even worse than suffering from higher prices owing to tariffs e.g.
Given the Reeps have now planned their first hundred days and, according to a Denver Post piece Sunday ('GOP Eyes Ambitious 100-Day Agenda Starting With Tax Cuts', p. 2A), it will be same 'ol same 'ol Reepo:
"A tax break for millionaires ...but an end to the government subsidies from the pandemic that many Americans have used to purchase health insurance. That plus a limit to food stamps - including for women and children- as well as cutting other safety net programs. Also, rollbacks to Biden-era green energy programs. And mass deportations and government job cuts to "drain the swamp"
Eliciting the question of how many Trumper voters considered the implications of these before casting ballots for the convicted felon. For example, any rollbacks of Biden's Infrastructure Act will mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, not to mention access to affordable health care.
Recall the extra health care subsidies were extended through 2025 in Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. With dumb 'working class' voters having voted for Trump (like turkeys for Thanksgiving), that support is now first on the chopping block. Apart from which Elon Musk and his "DOGE" dept.
yearns to chop off parts of Medicare and most of Medicaid (and Social Security) as well. Too "wasteful", too "inefficient" according to this super billionaire -the wealthiest guy on Planet Earth who clearly doesn't need them.
Even The Wall Street Journal noted 'Hospitals Spooked By Return of Republican Control'. p. B10, Nov. 29):
"Hospitals, not drugmakers, might have more to fear from a Republican government. With the GOP in control of congress and the White House, hospitals could face budget cuts and tighter oversight after a period of benefiting from generous federal spending under President Biden."
But see, that generous federal support is what kept many more hospitals from closing, and poorer patient suffering. Especially given "Medicaid expansions funneled Medicaid dollars to hospitals."
But now, according to the WSJ: "Cutting Medicaid will be a way to trim government spending and pay for Trump's tax cuts."
Are people ready for that, especially those voters struggling to pay rent and buy groceries? Maybe they ought to have thought a bit harder before recklessly casting ballots for Trump-Musk.
What about mass deportations? Great idea, huh? Think again. Who is going to pick all those crops that need agri workers? White Americans? Don't make me laugh. Low labor supply means fewer workers, longer times to pick crops, longer times to store inventory and much higher prices at the supermarket. (Added to the tariff sting Dump is already hot to unleash).
What about shedding all those government jobs? Great idea, no? Well do you really want fewer workers checking our food supply out for salmonella, listeria, tapeworms and E coli? Especially millions more of this little beasties (Taenia solium):
I guess millions of Trump voters can't wait to be the life at this worm's party.
'Drain the 'swamp'? Great idea in theory, but what happens after all the national security structure is directed to going after the DOJ prosecutors of Trump (including FBI) - and not enough remain to halt a dirty bomb attack on a major city? Say from a revived Isis.
As for those tax cuts Trump demands, we learn (ibid.):
"The top 1 percent earning $1 million or more received a $60,000 income tax cut. Those with lower incomes received a few hundred dollars each."
And the kicker:
"The Congressional Budget Office estimates that keeping the expiring Trump tax cuts in place would add $4 trillion to the deficits over a decade."
Of course, this is why the Goops need to cut social safety benefits- Medicaid, food stamps, etc. to make up for the hole carved out by these tax cuts. The lion's share of which will go to the wealthiest - an estimated $60k a year to $1 million earners, and chump change ($200-300) to the rest of us. Tell me, is it really worth it to get $300 a year tax cut when your health care is terminated and you need to get to the ER because tape worms are blocking up your bowels, thanks to incompetent meat inspections - or none at all?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Maybe the voters really knew what they were getting into. But I am betting most just thought Dump was bluffing. We will see over the next year or so. But one thing I know, the Dems will again be left having to dig the country out of the fiscal mess left behind by incompetent Reepo clowns.
See Also:
Map Shows States Where Millions Could Lose Coverage if Trump Cuts Medicaid
And:
by Tom Engelhardt | December 4, 2024 - 6:26am | permalink
Give him credit. As a start, for that first surprise victory in 2016.
No, I didn’t fully get it at the time, but I kind of get it now (since, like the rest of us, I’ve lived through it all, including his close loss in 2020). Still, twice? Him? A convicted felon, no less! And yes, I do think italics are all too appropriate under the circumstances.
Two times as the president of these increasingly disunited states of America? Holy cowpie!
Perspecting (No, That’s Not a Typo) Donald Trump
This country actually did it — elected him (again!) — and so we deserve whatever we get, at least a little less than 50% of us do: Fox News… oops, sorry, Pete Hegseth to run the largest, best-funded, and least adept military on planet Earth? Robert Kennedy, Jr., to keep our health in check(mate?) or do I mean checkerboard red shape? Tulsi Gabbard overseeing what still passes for American “intelligence,” though in some sense it couldn’t have been dumber for endless years? Or Chris Wright, who denies that there’s any kind of a climate crisis on Planet Earth, to lead — yes, of course! — the Department of Energy. And that’s just to start down an endlessly expanding, mind-blowingly unnerving list.
And:
by Heather Digby Parton | December 5, 2024 - 7:17am | permalink
There are a thousand election hot takes and post-mortems floating around these days and I'm sure we'll soon come to some consensus about what drove the Trump victory (now down to a whopping 1.48% margin and shrinking.) But if there's one thing we do know it's that he won both of his elections at least in part by shedding some Republican Party orthodoxy that had been bringing the GOP down for ages. He knows a third rail when he sees one.
And if there's one issue that differentiated Trump from other Republicans from the minute he came down that golden escalator it's his promise to preserve the so-called entitlement programs. He made it clear: "I'm not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid," and it may have been the key to his success in that first campaign. By so boldly declaring those programs off limits he created an aura of post-ideological Republicanism, something that allowed people to buy into his fake persona as a self-made businessman who played by different rules to get things done.
And:
by Alex Henderson | November 29, 2024 - 7:00am | permalink
Critics of President-elect Donald Trump's proposal for aggressive new tariffs were hoping that he would back down or reconsider his idea. Instead, Trump is promising to enact new tariffs on his first day back in office, including across-the-board 25% tariffs on goods imported into the United States from Mexico and Canada. Tariffs on items imported from Mainland China would be pegged at 10%.
Vice President Kamala Harris, during her 2024 presidential campaign, repeatedly warned that the tariffs Trump was proposing would, in effect, be a major "sales tax on the American people" if enacted. And many economists, including Robert Reich and the New York Times' Paul Krugman, have been warning that Trump's tariffs would lead to brutal inflation.
Reich and Krugman are liberals. But on the right, the Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank) has been equally critical of Trump's proposed tariffs.
CBS News reporter Megan Cerullo, in an article published on November 27, lists some of the many items that are likely to soar in price if Trump's new tariffs are enacted in 2025.
And:
by Thom Hartmann | December 4, 2024 - 7:10am | permalink
“The ideas you are about to hear are not idle conjecture. I have built upon a foundation of indisputable first causes, so that the unifying force which controls the cosmos is revealed in full clarity.”
—Jack Vance
Trump named the plans for his second term “Agenda 47,” although for reasons known only to them, America’s mainstream media persists in ignoring it. They shouldn’t.
At best, it’s a dystopian nightmare: at worst it means ending our current system of American government; aligning the US with Russia and other autocratic nations; and the USA leading the charge against democracy and in favor of authoritarian, strong-man forms of government across the world.
Over at his website, Trump lays out the details of his governing agenda, complete with short videos promoting each of the steps he plans to take. They, and his many statements about future plans — which we’ll probably see implemented during his first 100 days — include:
And:
Trump’s tariffs could mean higher inflation on groceries, gas and cars - The Washington Post
And:
Opinion | How Private Funds Could Hurt Americans Under Trump - The New York Times
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